Let's talk. Contact Judy

Posts Tagged ‘punctuation’

How Do I Punctuate Et Al?

By Judy Vorfeld If you do much read­ing, or are in cer­tain pro­fes­sions, you not only come across the expres­sion et al., but know what it means. Et al. used to be used just in the U.S. in legal doc­u­ments, but for many years it’s been used […]

Share
Read more

Homonym Heaven

The Internet: Homonym Heaven! By Judy Vorfeld Have you ever vis­ited a visu­ally attrac­tive site and then spot­ted phrases such as, “If your inter­ested in learn­ing more about our Websight, e-mail us,” or “This prod­uct comes with an uncon­di­tional guar­an­tee. It’s high qual­ity will make you’re life better!”? […]

Share
Read more

Your Fault or You’re Fault?

By Judy Vorfeld Your and you’re are two of the most com­monly mis­un­der­stood words in the Wide Wide World. “Your” is the pos­ses­sive form of the word “you.” It’s used as a mod­i­fier before a noun, e.g., “Thanks for your let­ter.” “Your” means some­one owns or has some­thing: your car, […]

Share
Read more

Commas-Periods: Inside or Outside Quotation Marks?

By Judy Vorfeld The Chicago Manual of Style, six­teenth edi­tion (6.9), says, “Periods and com­mas pre­cede clos­ing quo­ta­tion marks, whether dou­ble or sin­gle.” Examples: She said, “I’ll be there soon.” … “When you are fin­ished,” he said, “we’ll leave.” CMS also states that there are sev­eral exceptions […]

Share
Read more

Attributive Nouns

By Judy Vorfeld Do you feel okay punc­tu­at­ing pos­ses­sives until you have to decide on “men’s room,” “mens’ room,” or “mens room?” I have peo­ple reg­u­larly ask­ing for the answer. Let’s inves­ti­gate. In this case, we’re talk­ing about attribu­tive nouns, not com­pounded nouns. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary says an […]

Share
Read more
Page 1 of 11

Judy’s Writing Tips

Judy’s Grammar Tips

Top